Black Gate 620s Whisky Review!

A young Australian single malt whisky, with a huge ABV, from a tiny distillery in regional New South Wales that is quickly gaining a serious following. This should be good!

Black Gate Distillery was established back in 2009 by husband & wife team Brian & Genise Hollingworth, near the small town of Mendooran in central New South Wales, around five hour's drive north-west of Sydney. Brian & Genise are both very friendly and very humble people, and they definitely know what they're doing. The cult following that their spirits have garnered is testament to that. While they started off producing a range of different spirits while waiting for their whisky to mature, single malt whisky and aged rum are the current focus. The distillery itself is tiny, even by Australian standards, with an annual production of around 4,000 litres of spirit through two direct-fired (yes, direct-fired - see photo above!) copper pot stills, of 630-litres and 300-litres capacity respectively. The larger of the two was only added in 2017, so at the time of writing all bottled Black Gate single malt was made in the smaller still alone. Most pot stills are heated internally by steam coil, whereas these are externally heated using a gas flame under the base of the stills. And they certainly do make a big difference to the finished product, adding a slight charred or burnt note to the spirit that is very pleasant.

These whiskies are very young by international standards, with all releases to date being between two (the minimum age for whisky in Australia) and four years of age, but they're helped along by the local conditions, with massive variations in temperature, from below freezing in winter to over 40 degrees centigrade in summer, resulting in faster and more aggressive maturation. They're also given an extra shove by the use of smaller casks, predominantly of the Australian sherry (Apera) and port (Tawny) persuasions, although there are now also full-sized casks maturing at the distillery. The majority of Black Gate's whisky releases to date were distilled from unpeated or lightly-peated barley, sourced from Tasmania, Victoria and locally in New South Wales, but there have been a few heavily peated expressions released recently that used peated malted barley sourced from the UK. Which is great to see! Adding to their appeal is the fact that Black Gate do not chill filter or artificially colour any of their single malts, and their bottling strength doesn't go below 46% ABV. The personal touches also help, and many of Black Gate's direct customers receive a hand-written thank you card from Brian & Genise with their purchases. Which is incredible when you think about it, and it's not something I've ever seen before.

The expression I'm looking at today is Black Gate 620s, which is one of only a few cask strength releases to date. The whisky's name refers to this being a marriage of six re-coopered 20-litre casks, which were left to mature for just 2 years and 2 months, before being vatted together and bottled at a massive 71.1% ABV. If memory serves me correctly this is the third-highest ABV whisky that I've ever tasted, and the two that are in front, both Heartwoods at 72% and 73.5% respectively, were much older than this Black Gate, and were also matured in full-sized casks. So this should be interesting! 620s was distilled from lightly-peated malted barley in March 2016, and was bottled in May 2018 with a yield of just 184 individually numbered 500ml bottles, and as mentioned above no Black Gate whiskies are chill filtered or artificially coloured. It can still be found in specialist retailers for around $220 AUD. That may sound expensive for a 500ml bottle, but when you consider the extra cost of the 20-litre casks, the ridiculous amount of duty (and other taxes) that would have to be paid on a whisky of this strength in Australia, and the very limited nature of this bottling, it's very reasonable! Personally I don't mind the 500ml bottles that are becoming more widely-used in Australian whisky, since as a general rule it keeps the pricing at a more reasonable level, and it also helps with availability. Unfortunately there are plenty of Australian producers that are exceptions to that general rule, but that's certainly not the case with Black Gate. In fact when it comes to offering value for money in Australian single malt whiskies, they're among the contenders for the top prize.

Image from oakbarrel.com.au

Black Gate 620s, 71.1% ABV cask strength. Mendooran, NSW, Australia.

Distilled March 2016, bottled May 2018, aged 2 years & 2 months. Vatting of six re-coopered 20-litre casks, yielded 184 500ml bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Light copper.

Nose: It's a fire-y beast to start with, but it settles down quickly. Lots of dark lightly-burnt caramel and medium-dark chocolate, sweetened coconut, and a little dry toasted malt. A little dark rum-like, and there's still a bit of nose prickle to it, but for a 2-year old whisky at 71% that's to be expected! A little charred eucalyptus / gum forest and some thick vanilla paste with more breathing time. 

Texture: Medium weight, rich & syrup-thick. Quite punchy with a bit of heat too, but again, that's to be expected. 

Taste: Big hit of chilli chocolate, more lightly-burnt caramel and dry toasted malt. Some savoury / dry herbal honey, more thick vanilla paste and some thick stone fruit syrup. 

Finish: Short-medium length. Toasted spices, more burnt caramel and sweetened coconut, and that stone fruit syrup and thick vanilla paste again. A little herbal and slightly vegetal, that eucalyptus / gum forest note coming through again. Something slightly lactic & slightly burnt towards the end as well, which is interesting. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: This is a big intense whisky, and it's a little rough around the edges, but there's plenty to like! There's a lot of flavour, and it's very concentrated and condensed, and quite punchy of course. But for such a young whisky at such a high strength it's clearly very well made, and there's loads of character to explore. Even 20-litre casks couldn't completely hide bad spirit, and they definitely haven't had to here. It may not be the most complex whisky out there, and you'd hardly call it subtle, but for its age its very impressive, and high ABV fans will definitely enjoy it. That toasted malt & burnt caramel would have to be down to those direct-fired stills, which is a unique and very intriguing touch. That uniqueness and those interesting flavours do help Black Gate stand out from the pack, which is very important in the booming and fast-expanding Australian whisky industry.

This one probably would've benefited from a little water to be fair, but that's not how I do things for these reviews, so I waited until afterwards to try that. And a few drops did soften everything out without losing anything at all, and it boosted the sweetness and vanilla as well. Well worth trying! Brian & Genise are putting out great stuff down at Black Gate without following anyone's lead, and they're amassing a well-deserved following as a result. Keep up the good work guys!

Cheers!

Two Kilchoman Machir Bay Cask Strength Whisky Reviews!

Yes, cask strength Machir Bay from Islay's smallest distillery, and it's another two-for-one review!

On face value you might look at that title and think that these are just regular cask strength versions of Kilchoman's entry-level whisky, like a few other distilleries offer, but it's not quite that simple. These cask strength versions of Machir Bay are special bottlings for what Kilchoman call their 'tours', when the distillery sends representatives on road trips across either Britain, Europe or the United States, where they visit retailers and bars, conduct tastings and of course sell their wares. From what I can find the first of these was bottled in 2014 for their UK tour, followed by another in the same year for a European tour, then one in 2015 for another European tour, one in 2016 for the east coast of the U.S., another for the U.S. in 2017 for the west coast, and now one in 2018 for another European tour. The distillery has also started offering cask strength vattings of Machir Bay as exclusive bottlings for retailers & distributors, but to my knowledge only a couple of those have been bottled to date.

I've reviewed a few batches of Laphroaig's 10 Year Old Cask Strength to date, and I've definitely mentioned just how scarce and therefore expensive it is in Australia, but these two Kilchomans are far harder to find, the number of bottles released is positively minuscule in comparison to the Laphroaig. And these are quite reasonably priced if you do manage to find one - but that'll most likely be at overseas auction if you're not based in Europe or America. Rather confusingly they alternate between the red packaging & labels of the distillery's single cask bottlings, and the blue packaging & labels of the regular Machir Bay and vintage releases, so they don't always immediately stand out from the standard release. The two bottlings that I'm reviewing here are from 2015 and 2018, the first being the 2015 bottling for the UK tour which a fellow Kilchoman fan picked up from overseas auction, and the second being the 2018 bottling for the European tour that I picked up myself from Milroy's in London during my pilgrimage. The 2015 bottling was one of the smallest releases so far, consisting of only 648 bottles, while the 2018 bottling is the largest so far with 2,310 bottles. The 2018 bottling is also the first that is not presented in a box, and it has been given a unique printed plastic label rather than the old paper versions. That's still quite a small release of course, but then everything that Islay's only farm distillery does is on a small scale when compared with their neighbours, and even when the currently-under way expansion is complete they'll still be far smaller than the vast majority of all Scottish distilleries.

Like the regular Machir Bay expression (older batch reviewed here) these are vattings of roughly 85-90% ex-bourbon casks and 10-15% ex-sherry casks, but rather than the 46% ABV of the entry-level Kilchoman (nothing to sneeze at of course) they're closer to 60%. They're a similar age as well to the regular version, which is a vatting of casks from 4-6 years of age, but Kilchoman fans will be aware of how these young whiskies often defy their ages. Always remember that age and maturity are two very different things (in whisky, and also in people!) and if you ask me Kilchoman produce some of the best examples of what young whisky can be. That's certainly helped by the distillery bottling all of their whisky at a minimum strength of 46% ABV, without ever chill filtering or adding colouring, and careful production, good casks and natural & honest presentation seem to be the winning recipe. Let's get to it!

Kilchoman Machir Bay Cask Strength 2015, NAS, 59%. Islay, Scotland.

Bottled for UK Tour 2015, 85-90% ex-bourbon casks, 10-15% ex-sherry casks. Natural colour, non-chill filtered, 648 bottles. 

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Very nice. A little Ardbeg-y in fact but slightly darker and meatier, and more fruity. Sweet lemon & lime, under-ripe tart pineapple, vanilla frosting and some meaty drying seaweed. Light chunky peat, some warm chalky sand and a dusting of sea salt. 

Texture: Excellent. Medium weight, sweet and peaty syrup. No heat at all. 

Taste: Sweet fruit syrup on entry, sweet ripe pineapple and more lemon & lime. Then a lovely crumbly, slightly sharp peat with loads of fruity sweetness underneath. A little chewy toffee and vanilla custard as well. 

Finish: Long. Peaty and salty, a little astringent and drying. Some aniseed, dry chilli flakes and a little cocoa powder. More sea salt, seaweed and a little hessian sacking (sandbags, potato sacks etc.). A slight bitterness to finish, like citrus pith (the white spongy stuff), and soft earthy peat. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Almost a 4 in fact. 

Notes: Very good! The mouthfeel on this one is fantastic, a really syrupy texture with that dry chunky peat mixed in. Great stuff. The spice and bitterness in the finish are a little unexpected, but not entirely unpleasant and they definitely add depth. It's still recognisable as Machir Bay as well, which isn't always the case with some cask strength versions of other distilleries' regular expressions. Not a massively complex dram perhaps, but it's very enjoyable and very tasty. 

Kilchoman Machir Bay Cask Strength 2018, NAS, 59.8%. Islay, Scotland.

Bottled for European Tour 2018, 85-90% ex-bourbon casks, 10-15% ex-sherry casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 2,310 bottles.

Colour: Pale gold, slightly paler than the 2015. 

Nose: Immediately very different. Younger, brighter and sweeter, but also more angular and much less rounded. Orchard fruit this time (apple & a few pears), more chunky earthy peat, and some fresh seafood-like sweetness. A little more spirit- and alcohol-forward than the 2015, almost mezcal-like in comparison. A slightly vegetal sweetness and some dirty engine oil with more time. 

Texture: Very nice. Medium weight, syrupy again with plenty of peat. Not as sharp or angular as the nose suggested, and only a slight touch of heat. 

Taste: Syrupy again, lots of fried sweet banana and a little ripe pineapple this time. A spicy, chunky, sharp peat with a good pinch of dried chilli and black pepper spice alongside. Some sour lemon juice and ashy wood smoke, and a flash of vanilla around the edges. 

Finish: Medium length. Shorter, a little sharper and more angular. More lemon juice, turning slightly bitter, some chalky peat and more ashy smoke. Light vanilla cream and a little fried banana. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. But only just. 

Notes: Another reminder that I should've gone with a 10-point scoring system! Oh well. This one is very different, much less rounded and a little sharper, with more spice and sweet mezcal-like vegetal notes. And it definitely feels younger overall. But it's still very enjoyable, there's a nice fruity sweetness mixed in with that chunky peat that is very much in the 'spirit' of the regular Machir Bay releases. I do prefer the 2015 bottling personally, but I can see the 2018 version ticking a lot of boxes for Islay fans as well.  

Both of these whiskies are proof of what Kilchoman can do at such young ages, even at these high strengths. And both drink well below their nearly-60% ABVs. Good value for money too, particularly if you're lucky enough to be in Europe. Great stuff from Islay's underdog!

Cheers!

Kilchoman Feis Ile 2014 Whisky Review!

Cask strength Kilchoman finished in a Fino sherry cask? Yes please!

Kilchoman do more than their fair share of playing around with cask maturation and finishing, most commonly in their annual releases such as the recent Port cask and Sauternes Cask Finish, and their single cask bottlings. Their Feis Ile bottlings are often more experimental, and of course are much harder to find. These one-off bottlings (for the annual Islay festival) are some of the hardest to source of all the Islay distilleries, which is largely down to the small number of bottles released and the ever-increasing popularity of this brilliant little distillery. This Feis Ile bottling from 2014 would have to be one of the most unusual cask finishes that they've released to date, where two ex-bourbon casks at around 4.5 years of age were then filled into a single Fino sherry butt (500-litre cask) for three months. A three month finishing may not sound like much, particularly in a 500-litre cask, and it isn't really. But with the quality of casks that Kilchoman are using it's bound to have had an effect. Fino sherry casks are still very seldom seen in the Scotch whisky world, particularly in heavily peated whisky, with only a few distilleries dabbling in their use. You could point at Laphroaig's 2018 Cairdeas bottling as the most high-profile Fino finish to date, but Islay's smallest distillery - and its only farm distillery - lead the way four years ago back in early 2014.

Fino, which is Spanish for "refined", is the driest style of sherry with almost zero sugar content (less than 0.5%), and it must be aged for a minimum of two years in wooden casks. The casks are only filled to around 80% to allow the natural 'flor' yeast layer to form on top of the wine, which protects it from oxygen contact and consumes most of the residual sugars and also some of the ethanol in the wine. Fino sherries are pale, dry and delicate fortified wines with a yeasty, salty, nutty flavour, and they are very fragile once bottled since that protective flor layer is filtered out prior to bottling. They also oxidise very quickly once opened. I imagine this would make using the emptied casks a little challenging since they would need to be kept extremely fresh, which is probably part of the reason that we don't see too many Fino casks used in the whisky industry. Which is also why it was seldom shipped in casks traditionally, making those casks much harder to come by in Scotland in comparison with other sherry styles. In 1981 the Spanish regulations were altered and sherry could no longer be shipped in casks, resulting in the scarcity and increased cost of 'traditional' sherry casks that we still deal with today, and also the more recent advent of sherry-seasoned casks that are destined for the whisky industry from day one.

Finding any older Feis Ile bottling is no easy task, let alone a very small-scale bottling from a small-scale but popular distillery. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow-Kilchoman fan who purchased the bottle at overseas auction, and while it wasn't exactly cheap it was definitely on the reasonable side considering its scarcity. Only 525 bottles were released at a cask strength of 58.7%, and of course there's no chill filtration or added colouring since Kilchoman never dabble in those dark arts. One interesting observation here is that they haven't labelled this bottling as a single cask, because it came from two bourbon barrels which were then combined in the single sherry butt for the short finishing. Technically that finishing in a single cask would make this a single cask bottling, and quite a few other distilleries have been known to use the term in such cases, so it's interesting that Kilchoman haven't. I'd assume that's for the sake of extra transparency, which of course is no bad thing! Being a lighter style of sherry means the sherry cask won't have had as much of an effect as an Oloroso or PX cask would, but Kilchoman's sweet, peaty & fruity young spirit should work very well the Fino cask. There's really only one way to find out...

Kilchoman Feis Ile 2014, 4 Year Old, 58.7%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled July 2009, matured for 4.5 years in two ex-bourbon casks, finished in a single Fino sherry butt for 3 months, bottled May 2014. 525 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.   

Colour: Yellow gold.

Nose: Fresh & coastal, but also sweet & creamy. Nose-tingling to start with but settles down quite quickly. Chunky, earth peat with a big pinch of salt, some warm roasted nuts and lightly-sweetened fresh cream. Some meaty fresh seaweed, and a little yeasty tang behind like a slice of crusty sour dough bread. Some lighter tropical fruit in the background.

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, rich & full flavoured. Creamy, peaty and syrupy. A little heat but pleasant.

Taste: Sweet creamy entry, then tropical fruit syrup, milk chocolate and a blast of chunky, earthy peat with a big pinch of hot chilli salt following afterwards. A slight floral sweetness and some fresh bitter lemon around the edges.

Finish: Long, and quite bold. Thick acrid smoke, more chilli salt, some more zesty bitter lemon and melted milk chocolate. More roasted nuts, mostly almond with a few cashews and chalky walnuts thrown in. Smoked chilli salt, brine and some drying bitter oak to finish.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Delicious! It's not shy, and there is a slight roughness to it, but that only adds to its character. A really excellent texture / mouth feel to this one, it's very rich and syrupy despite that peat and chilli spice. In fact it's one of the weightier Kilchomans that I've tasted, and it carries plenty of flavour along with it. Very much like tropical fruit syrup with some heavily smoked chilli salt mixed through. Those nutty and yeasty notes would be down to the Fino cask, and it's given Kilchoman's usual salty tang a good boost as well, while dampening the usual fruity-ness a touch. Kilchoman really excel at making young peaty whiskies that drink well beyond their years. And more power to them!

This is a fresh and zesty young whisky that won't take any prisoners, but in the company of cask strength Islay fans it won't have any trouble making friends either. I think we need to see more heavily peated whisky that has spent some time in lighter & dryer sherry casks, because it really seems to work brilliantly. Look at Ardbeg Ardbog (partly matured in Manzanilla casks), Laphroaig Cairdeas Fino, Ledaig Amontillado, and now this Feis Ile Kilchoman (if you can find it) for some truly excellent examples.

Cheers!